And all you gotta do is be either the first to deliver (in the comment section below) the correct answer to the question I’m about to reveal here… or write up the best response. I’ll be the judge and jury here.

So there will be two winners. We’ll let this quiz percolate for a week, and then I’ll announce the two winners here.

I haven’t hosted a quiz in a long time. Shame on me. The last few quizzes pulled in hundreds and hundreds of replies, which kind of freaked me out… but they were also evil fun. I’ll be in the comments myself, sifting and searching for the two winners (and tossing out the trolls).

I’ll announce the lucky victors in the comments section on Friday, November 22.

Free signed copy of the one book all serious entrepreneurs should have on their shelf. Might be worth something, you know, when I kick the bucket (or get embroiled in a scandal or something).

First correct answer, and best response (as judged by me).

Okay, ready?

Here’s the set-up for the question: I’ve been counseling and advising entrepreneurs for over 30 years now…

… on just about every detail of creating a solid biz model, and cramming all marketing materials with the kind of persuasive voodoo that brings in the Big Bucks. I’ve helped transform a small army of formerly-clueless entrepreneurs into scary-good monsters of profit.

And, in almost every long-term relationship I’ve had advising a client…

If you haven’t enjoyed a mentoring relationship like this (or even an extended round of consulting with an expert), you might be astonished at what, precisely, pops up as the biggest (and baddest) obstacle to getting filthy rich and deliriously happy as an entrepreneur.

You might even be shocked.

So, here’s the question: Based on what you suspect I’ve discovered in my 30 years of consulting…

… what is the NUMBER ONE PROBLEM faced by entrepreneurs in their quest for success?

Not the second biggest problem. Not the third biggest. THE biggest. The Big Kahuna of entrepreneurial obstacles.

The quiz starts now.

Drop your answer in the comments section. You can answer more than once, but don’t go nuts, all right? Quality, not quantity.

I’m reading this blog for a while now, started with the very last page and make my way through it. Actually I’m on page 115 (the server died, remember?)and I’m still thrilled about the brilliant posts you are writing.

Okay, fan-hugging done, so here is my answer:

The biggest problem i think is to _move_.
To get up and _do_ something, instead of just talking.

Like this: i want to win this copy, so i have to write a commend and not just think about how great it would be to win.

Hi Alice. How did you guys find out about this post so fast? I haven’t announced it on Facebook or in email yet…

Oh, well. Good for you for being on the cutting edge of discovery. RSS feed?

Anyway, good answer… but not the right one. Gary Halbert used to love saying “Movement solves a lot of problems”, and over the years I’ve also had many clients who just needed a good swift kick in the butt to get them off a static point of inaction.

I use bloglovin for google chrome, whenever a new blogpost is online a little red number show up. I love this little tool. 🙂

Okay next try:

First I scanned your answers to the other comments to find out if it is said already, but no. Fear was another idea, but you answered about that a lot so I first was about to say:

1. Ideas/Goals.

Before you haven’t have a good idea about what you want to do/sell or a goal settled, you can’t make any other move.

But then I read your answer to Ozans commend and another idea came to my mind:

2. the disability to hang on to an idea.

A first hurdle and the whole thing crashed, because they give up.

Also known as the greenness about the idea of getting succesfull. You doesn’t go straight to success, you fail a lot before you can succeed and if you don’t know (and accept) this, you never get anywhere close to your goals.

Another decent answer, Sean. But not the right one. I’ve known a number of entrepreneurs who follow the “ready, fire, aim” school of thought, and craft their goals on the go, while they’re in the game. It’s not the best way to get stuff done, cuz you end up going down a lot of blind alleys, and have to reverse course often. But it can work. In fact, it’s how I conducted my own career at the beginning, since I had launched myself into the freelance world with no clear goals other than to get a few jobs and “see what happens.”

You called it envy. The in-your-own-headedness that keeps entrepreneurs from understanding their clients, their competitors, and their market. Keeps them using horrible web designs because “I like it!” Keeps them thinking, “but what will they THINK OF ME if I use a headline like that?!” Keeps them saying, “if only I had my competition’s competitive advantage, I’d be rich!” (and never spotting what they can do to do things ten times better)

And keeps them from spotting a starving crowd when it wanders past their front door, begging for a juicy burger.

Mike — that’s one of my favorite sayings (and I’m pretty sure I said this first a few years ago, though the sentiment is as old as recorded history): “It’s a built-in tendency of the human race to take a simple, elegant idea… and then complicate the fuck out of it.”

Hmm I’m guessing then that the most common problem in consulting is that people don’t know exactly what their next step is. That’s why they go to consulting asking for what to do rather than having a plan already and use consulting as help. I read this from one of your articles but I can’t remember exactly where, I’ll post back when I find it.

I think the #1 thing holding people back is their fear of failure. Many people view failure as an end instead of only being a part of the journey, a necessary part. The only way you can truly fail is if you quit….or never start.

Based on the clues, I would say that entrepreneurs get one-itis, that is to say they believe that there is only one way to accomplish what they are after. They stay stuck on trying the same thing over and over hoping for a new result every time. They can’t jump the rut to cut a new groove.

I’ll take a shot – The one problem is the entrepreneurs are not doing those things they know they should be doing to get the desired results. They instead focus on what they’re passionate about, the stuff that makes them feel busy, or the stuff that doesn’t scare them.

I think we are constantly being brainwashed, so if that is true, I think we should at least pick a good “detergent”, which will in turn allow us to constantly improve, and reach our chosen goals (or at least let us find “the right” goals).

Good thinking, Marcin. Lots of folks almost require some kind of mentoring (I certainly benefited hugely from it).

However, the whole concept of mentoring is fraught with other issues — finding one, accessing them, understanding how the process works (the movie “The Karate Kid” wasn’t far off on the often absurd nature of how mentoring can work/not work).

If you’ve got just one demon running around in your head, you’re one lucky dude, Jeff. The rest of us are wrestling with small mobs of the little buggers.

And it’s hard to “kill” them. Much easier to develop simple strategies to ignore/lock them away. This was a big “Psych Insights for Modern Marketers” podcast not too long ago… (free podcasts at http://www.pi4mm.com)

The number one problem is getting new customers. At least in the eye’s of the entrepreneurs.

They’re real, main problem is… not having a marketing system to get new customers. A system which can be measured and therefore a system which can be improved. A system which gives them rock-solid guidance in form of tasty sales.

But in order to be able to get that… they need to get their shit together.

There is no one biggest problem. Every biz owner has a new biggest problem every week of the year. If you don’t have problems, it means you’re not pushing hard enough, and holes aren’t naturally being poked in the way you do things. So I’d have to say if I didn’t have a biggest problem, that’d be my biggest problem.

Hi,
i think th biggest problem is to clearly define the good prospect profile: what they want , who they are, to be able to adapt the good product for the good customer and of course where to find them to make the good list.

— Failure to ‘Get It’. Many entrepreneurs chase their tails and spin their wheels without understanding what the ultimate objective is.

— Their EGO. Too focused on being ‘dignified’ and ‘professional’. Not enough brass balls, personality, and gusto in their marketing.

— Not focused on Operation Moneysuck. Any small problem or distraction throws most entrepreneurs off. Printer crashes…they spend a half an hour trying to fix it. One customer complained…throwing away 20 minutes (or more) trying to smooth it out with them over the phone. All focus should be on the activities that directly lead to money coming in (writing sales letter, upselling, etc.).

I am a reader all the way from Nigeria and I love everything you teach.

In answer to your question, I believe the biggest problem is that entrepreneurs ALWAYS THINK that their business is DIFFERENT and so believe that your ideas and strategies CANNOT possibly be transferred to their business and used by them to make monster profits.

I love quizzes, especially when there’s good “bait on the hook”…John, I believe the correct answer something we all struggle with, in one form or another, no matter where we are on the success ladder…it’s actually a very core human characteristic and darn hard to overcome sometimes (can you hear the voice of experience talking here?)…a simple four letter word…ENVY! Cheers mate, and good luck to all.

“Fear” is showing up a lot. And while it IS a major issue, it’s usually more of an issue BEFORE someone gets to the point of consulting with me. By the time I enter the picture, some form of action and movement has taken place.

Great answer, and it’s a common first thought. But not the answer I’m looking for.

My two-penneth worth about what is stopping most entrepreneurs from being successful is this: The Fear.

The fear of failing.

What sets successful people aside from the mortals are their willingness to face up to that fear. Facing it and just pushing ahead despite that desperate, yawning pull that churns your stomach and dizzies your mind. Because really they have nothing to fear.

Even if it does happen (and most of the time, your worst fears aren’t realised) failure is simply part of the learning process. Lots of failures means you have gained an education far beyond those who sit and dream. And if you keep going, then, yes, success will be waiting for you just round the next corner.

Again, I see why “fear” keeps coming up, because I certainly harp on it a lot (as do other teachers).

But while fear is rampant in the general population, once an entrepreneur actually dives into the adventure of going into biz, they’ve conquered much of the greatest kind of fear they’ll encounter. There will be lots of opportunities to experience more fear along the way… but it’s not the major problem.

Working in their business instead of on their business. 80% of their time is spent on low value activities that can be outsourced for dirt cheap. Instead, they could be focusing on the actions that yield the greatest ROI…the 20% actions that yield 80% of the results. Michael Gerber’s E-Myth books and products tackle this tendency head on.

The action takers but not necessarily the tinkers have already jumped in and given you their response. You’ve quickly torched them (in a nice way) and have possibly sent some into oblivion forever.

Now the ‘procrastinators, fear gods, the non action takers’ who refer to themselves as the ‘thinkers’ will ponder the answer over the weekend; many of who will have long, sleepless nights and will deliver their response next week. International drug companies (legal and illegal) will thank you for the turmoil you’ve caused.

The strategists will collate all the responses, run it through a specially designed software program built by Bill Gates and give you their reply 5 minutes to midnight of 21 November.

But for me John, the eternal optimist, I know the number one issue with entrepreneurs is ALL of the above + FEAR.

Fear to get started, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of being a dill in front of their mates, fear of giving up a pay check from a company they hate….you name it. They are riddled with False Evidence Appearing Real = FEAR!

In my 21 years of consulting I found that the biggest barrier to success was the person being their own worst enemy — self-disparagement/denial of one’s own intentions, minimizing one’s abilities — shooting oneself in the foot.

To nail it down to the ONE thing…you’re really making sparks fly in my noggin’!

My best guess would be their MINDSET.

If they don’t have their mind conditioned for great success and wealth, they will unconsciously **** it up. Even if they are so close to success they can smell it…if their mind is not in the right place…forget it. They will unconsciously sabotage their own success.

Hmm from this clue I guess I would say the number one thing blocking people is trying to do everything yourself. You need to be open to more partnership of mentorship, something like that like a fresh set of eyes long term.

Goof alert…I obviously missed Eric’s comment above, and your subsequent answer. Fair enough, try again…so this time I’ll go from the gut…ATTITUDE! Whether it’s the right answer or not, you wouldn’t be the first person I’ve heard talk about this, but as the years half piled on, life experience has a cunning way of proving wiser people than me to be right. “Attitude is everything…” have you heard that one before? And from the “personal life experience” vault I attest…every time my attitude sucked, so did pretty much everything else around me…business, relationships, life. Cheers

Great post and discussion. Andy already said what I think – themselves.

I also think that thinking too small is a problem. I meet new entrepreneurs who want to set up on a shoe string, and think they can get all the advice they want for free. Sure they can get a lot of advice for free, but I see people doing absolutely bonkers things (do you say bonkers in USA or is it just a UK thing?) because they aren’t willing to pay for an hour of good business advice. (Doesn’t have to be at your rates, John!) The whole thing then becomes a hobby, not a business.

— EGO. The majority of entrepreneurs get sucked into this concept of looking “professional” and “dignified.” So they tone down their marketing. In plain english, not enough brass balls, personality and gusto in their marketing.

— They don’t ‘Get It’ (scuttlebutt session with Gary Halbert). They don’t understand the whole system of business and what their main objective is. Many don’t know that ultimately, the purpose of a business is to be profitable. Therefore, you should focus on operation moneysuck.

I never had the occasion to sincerely thank you and all your teammates to be my copywriting mentors and for making available your vast knowledge in direct response to the general crowd.

I’m only 19 now and you know what? I was able to afford a 3 weeks long trip to Germany ALL thanks to the earnings brought by my freelance copywriting activities.

Having said that, I’ll shoot an answer based on my personal struggles: the BIGGEST problem of any entrepreneur is definitely having to deal with UNEXPECTED events.

Things that the entrepreneur didn’t forsee he would encounter on his way to financial freedom and a meaningful life.

And I think it’s actually the job of a consultant to mentally prepare the entrepreneur to deal with any “black swan” that can come from not only his business but also his professional life.

For example, the entrepreneur can affirm she’s prepared to work until very late… but once she realizes her venture prevents her from attending her 3 year old’s ballet class ever again (or whatever), it might be a deal breaker.

In short, “black swans”/unexpected events (that cause unforseen life changes) are the invisible entrepreneurial bone breakers that form the biggest problem of any entrepreneur.

See I was going to say the number one obstacle was not having a good mentor, or not consulting with someone who knew the intricacies, nuances and dodgy characters lurking down the ‘dark alley’ of entrepreneurship.

But you’re sneaky…so I’m thinking it may have something to do with the mechanics of biz, rather than ‘inner game’ stuff or getting outside assistance.

From my limited experience I’m going to say its choosing to go into the wrong kind of business in the first place i.e. high risk, low margins, lukewarm market.

Either that or not focusing on the aspect of your particular business that would be most profitable in your nich.

It would be their bias towards their own preferences. In other words, if someone believes that 1 + 1 = 3, then he’ll act as it’s 3 no matter if someone else proves them wrong or not.

Therefore, even if they are instructed on how to do things the right way, they’ll fall back into their own patterns of behavior, patterns that may or may have not served them right so far.

It’s the same thing that happens when they receive copy …
“Hmm … my niece thinks that this should be worded another way …”
“Hmm … that would never fly with my market”
“Hmm … what if we change just the headline, lead copy and closing to make it similar to what we’ve done before?”

It’s hard to change a mental bias, especially when the right thing is counter-intuitive compared to everything you’ve done so far.

Actually, many entrepreneurs experience something more akin to depression when they first hit massive success… because the game has shifted, and without struggle, they can get bored and irritated over the day-to-day management of an ongoing biz. It’s a good point to cover, and I think I’ve written a post or two about this phenomenon in the blog.

Not the big problem for entrepreneurs, however.

Thanks for sharing the deep thoughts, though, Gabor. Always been interested in Hungary…

Hey John
I’m guilty of missing too many of your posts the last couple of years. It sucks when life gets in the way.
My guess would be: A lack of focus on doing the important things needed to run and grow the business.
Thanks for great material.
Cheers
Colin

The number one problem faced by entreoreneurs in their quest for success is the fact
that they have not yet stumbled over you because if they would be on your email list
they would find out in a week or so thanks to you what is that number one problem.

I am not sarcastic. There are a few of top marketers who pretend expressing
not the second biggest problem, not the third biggest but the biggest,
the Big Kahuna of entrepreneurial obstacles.

Definitely, yours opinion is to be one of the most valuable and applicable
for entrepreneurs in their quests for success. For the following reason:
You, John, are never cheap in your interactions, you are never a clone of
hot prevailing cliches and manipulative approaches. You are one of those
very few top marketers, who are normal and wise.

So I am waiting for Your interpretation of the number one problem
faced by entreoreneurs in their quest for success.

Well, thank you for the kudo’s, Stefan. Talk about putting some pressure on me over the answer…

Seriously, though, I believe the answer will be a bit of a wake-up call for many folks. Remember, it’s what I’ve discovered to be the big problem of entrepreneurs during the 30-year window of consulting I’ve done, so it’s based on reality, not theory. So I’ve got that going for me…

Thanks John for your reply.
Sure you will disclose soon not a sort of a theory-based issue but the experience-based reality. I dared calling you normal and wise. What you will disclose will be not so much a naming of a problem as it will be an expression of wisdom. Wisdom, which is acquirable and transferable only in a joint spin of your self-reflection and reflection of other entrepreneurs during your 30-year scope of giving them your honest advice and profound methodology. Only wisdom is usable and applicable by all different kinds of people or entrepreneurs. Entreprenurs need today hearing the wisdom from marketers. So I am waiting for it.

I ran into the situation that I started with a business partner a business with several products and we made some sales.

But we were unable to increase those sales substantially and also failed to increase our customer base.

I think this is the biggest problem of entrepreneurs that they start, have some success but then hit a “glass ceiling” in the sky that prevents further progress and they are unable to grow their business. And they need help to make the next step an break the “glass ceiling” barrier preventing further growth.

Interesting take on a very real problem amongst entrepreneurs. Though, the glass ceiling reference (unfortunately) still applies mostly to women trying to reach upper levels of management in corporations.

What is the NUMBER ONE PROBLEM faced by (us as) entrepreneurs in their (our) quest for success?

Getting our head out of the sand, to get out of our way. Our perspectives and mindset constrict us in a tight, little inner-reflective bubble – sight unseen by us.

We’re being intelligent and logical; trying to do business with everyone/everything ‘outside of our bubble’… thinking their world is the same as ours… but it’s not. All we’re seeing is our own reflection; so we miss the mark.

If we put intellect/logic aside, and were completely honest; we’d see we are mostly just playing games within ourselves, unknowingly. To get out of our own way, means ‘we must BE in our own way – we’re the obstacle!’

‘We don’t see the world as it is – we see it as we are’.

…that’s my quick two cents worth; and hey, if it’s not the answer, at least it’s enlightening.

This quiz is fun ++. Thanks.
Persistence is my number one.
I don’t have it. My wife is genuinely surprised when I actually finish reading a book – I usually have half a dozen on my bedside table. Same thing on line, with a few really good things currently incompletely read. My website needs lots of attention to recover it’s status with the big G after penguins and pandas etc. It’s not getting it.

The biggest problem is not knowing who the ideal customer or client is. Who are you trying to reach and sell to. You need to imagine them as one person – think through every detail about them – get beyond the demographics and into the psychographics of what makes them who they really are. Think about the what their life is like – how they spend their leisure time and what luxuries they buy. Think about their values – what do they think about -care about – what keeps them awake at night. You need to be able to first identify them and then reach them on an emotional level.

It’s overcoming the propensity to to do the thing right, rather than do the right thing. They become pre-occupied with ladder climbing techniques and fail to ensure that it’s leant against the right tree first.They get bogged down with detail without ensuring that the fundamentals are in place first.

This is an interesting problem that many have. Not the answer I’m looking for… but while I’m not accusing you of having this particular problem, John, you’ve reminded me of a side benefit of quizzes like this: The first answers we often come up with are personal issues we’ve struggled with. A good quiz can be like a Rorchach test — and it’s good to know what that kind of brain-plumbing can bring up.

Yo JC, you got me with this one. Curiosity meter skyrocketing and of course I want the book.

#1 Problem with entrepreneurs is that they’re chasing entrepreneurship for the wrong reasons.

They are totally naive about the payoff. They think they’ll make easy money and live a cushy lifestyle, they think they’ll gain celebrity, cooler friends, hot chicks, a nicer car, and the internet marketing dream of making money while you sip pina colada’s on a hammock in the virgin islands.

And some will.

But if that’s your reason for being an entrepreneur you’re in for a long road of MISERY.

If what primarily motivates you is anything other than a throbbing boner for the work itself, you’re doomed.

No marketing advice, obstacle removal tools, persuasion ammunition, mentorship, business plan (god help you if you think your problem is not having a business plan) or diving deep into your “inner game” will make you successful.

You gotta LOVE the work like it’s the oxygen you breath. Without it, you’d die.

…Sorry, but I am too overwhelmed to come up with my own ideas about what might be number one at the moment, so I will have to borrow someone elses, and since no one else is here I am at a loss about what to do…I am alone, no one to ask, no one to answer, no one to discuss ideas with…

So who do you trust? A friend of twenty years will betray you for money and power so you have to start again (don’t ask) – and you are alone again. But you can’t do it in isolation, need help…..

The answer – myself, just myself, no one else, all alone, isolated, no one to watch my back, no one to give feedback…just me.

I think the number one problem for entrepreneurs is not acknowledging the fact that success is a process NOT an event. Everyone is looking for a “quick fix” and the “magic bullet” that will solve all their problems.

Perseverance is the key to success in the midst of all the sh*t life throws at you. Hang in there long enough, put in the hours and you’ll be rewarded.

My guess is lack of delegation. Just because you can do something, it doesn’t mean that you should.

After reaching a certain level of success, people tend to get pulled into every little nook and cranny of their business. They get too busy to grow their own business or end up getting sick of it all together. They need to delegate some tasks so they can take a step back and redraw the big picture or just take a breather.

Oh, and just to be clear, I’m not suggesting that you love working so much that you’d do it even if you weren’t being paid. There’s no such thing as an entrepreneur who works for free. This includes barters and trades too. An entrepreneur is friends with money, but it’s a really lovely, convenient, advantageous side benefit to winning the game of being a genius of your craft.

John, as a coach and advisor, how do you handle this situation: The client comes to you because they are not successful, they do not know what they are doing, and they know YOU do. Then when you give the advice, they argue or do not listen.

Here is my answer, learned from 7 years of helping my wife survive late stage cancer.
The problem is = Not adjusting/recalibrating and getting swiftly back in the right direction when bad things happen and/or when we find out that we have drifted in the wrong direction without our awareness.

We all have a goal we want to reach. But shit constantly happens and we get off course. Or we go off course on our own, even if shit doesn’t happen.
If we don’t constantly recalibrate and adjust, we will get somewhere. But it might not be the place and situation we wanted to reach.

I see the “passion” thing come up a lot when talking to entrepreneurs generally about biz… but not when they’ve paid for a consultation with me. The reality is that, often, trying to follow your bliss can lead you far away from your other goals… especially if those other goals include paying the rent on time and making a dent in the world’s issues.

I’m not knocking being passionate about your work. But there’s a lot of boring shit to be done in a day’s biz, a lot of things you’d rather not face, and a lot of struggle in between. For myself, the concept of working for myself was the big passion — working my own hours, in my own way, in a home office. What, precisely, I did in the course of each new gig was not put under the “passion” gauge. I often despised the early writing gigs I accepted, in fact. But I loved getting the check.

So, as much as many want entrepreneurial success to be about “passion”, I heartily disagree with the notion. This puts me at odds with a number of other guru’s, and that’s fine. I’m coming from the reality of being in business, and reality doesn’t like artificial standards.

Thanks for the note, Luke. It gave me a platform to clarify my position on this sub-subject. (And I believe Stacy would ultimately agree with me, though she IS in a biz niche she’s passionate about. That was a goal of hers, and it was important. For others, it can be a distraction.)

The biggest problem most business owners face besides an overall lack of clarity in every facet of their business… is they don’t know their customers/clients, and because of this, marketing and getting clients is always hard… Most business owners have no idea who their clients are and what their clients want, so they are trying to win a game of poker with a blindfold on.

I think a real biggie and possibly the “number one” is that they DON’T do the market research. They just come up with a wing-ding idea and go, then they try to sell it.

Inventors are notorious for doing this.

In fact, didn’t Gary Halbert mention in the Boron Letters that some guy had approached him in prison about writing an advertisement for his “friend” who had come up with some “key type” invention? And Gary talked about how foolish this was just inventing stuff and then trying to sell it. In fact, a major running theme in Gary’s writing in the Boron Letters was getting familiar with the SRDS and “DOING” the market research, finding that hungry market, not just throwing some off-the-cuff invented shit into the wind and hoping it will sell.

And…

I said I was torn, because if that isn’t the number one thing, then perhaps it is entrepreneurs not forming a proper sales funnel. Having no back-end. Just running a revolving door business. Customer comes in, buys, and goes–gone for good. Tons lost in back-end sales. Not to mention, they get spanked in customer acquisition. It is so MUCH easier to get a sale from a customer that has already bought then it is to bring in a new one.

When a person changes something by creating ( in every ares of life ) he is bound to experience certain changes in himself… a quick , healthy dose of courage, adjustment, confidence, own attitude is essential to overcome these, stay on track and move on towards his desired goals.

Not paying enough attention to your foundational structure. Your system, funnel, if that is in place and set up correctly, any problem or issue will be obvious. Any problem can be traced back to the cause and immediately corrected, fixed, adjusted, rewritten…

Having already read “… getting your shit together”, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say the #1 problem = Not knowing if there is a market for your product/service. Go out and “pre-sell” it before you design the damn website.

At least that’s what I’m doing with my latest business venture (A winery in the Caribbean)

Hi John
The number one issue holding entrepreneurs back is laziness. Just based on my own experience.

I want to do anything but sit and learn how to write and then write copy. I have a good vocabulary and want to increase my income, but I have my own business and would rather write killer copy for my own business and then use the rest of any free time to do all my other chores and build the infrastructure supporting my dream.

I like attending conferences, retreats and workshops and spend a lot on them but it takes time and money to afford them. Then I want to beautify my surroundings and learn mosaic so I have to procure the tools and supplies for that hobby and plan a design, lay it out with tedious tiny little tiles, then mortar and install on vertical walls grout, seal and polish.

I have to research all the nuances of the healing services that are my primary job and be my own publicist, blogger, accountant, marketer, copywriter, web designer, as well as play out the daily grind of my primary job

So when I have free time, I just want to meditate, paddle my kayak, ride my mtn bike or hike in the forest. I don’t want to work on researching someone else’s market, etc. I just want to look after my inner self.

This may be a troll of an answer being honest about not being all fired up to learn copywriting. I see its necessity but I am sluggish. Your provocative discourse makes you one of my favorite copywriters and I appreciate the great mentoring online.

Hi Nancy. You will not find a lazier human being than me… though many of my colleagues are in the game… and we found ways around it. It’s a problem, but not a biggie. The ability to embrace your Inner Lazy Ass and still be successful is a primary reason many folks become entrepreneurs in the first place…

On a deeper level, motivation becomes the issue. But that’s not the main problem I see, either…

The number one problem is losing objective focus when problems arrive.
Often they will throw time and money on bad decisions and wonder why solutions didn’t work. Unfortunately they remain stubborn past the expiration date of their bad situation.

We think we know what we want. We think we can see ourselves in possession of the completed goal. But we really don’t.

As Earl Nightingale said, “We are what we think about.” Thus all that we have done (good and bad) is because that is what we thought about.

Our biggest limitation by far, bigger than all other things combined, is that we truly don’t see ourselves doing what we tell you what we want to do.

Thus our sub-conscience works “over-time” to keep us where we are to make us happy.

So my biggest challenge has been to truly see myself in the future in the life I am shooting for. And then figuring out what kind of a person becomes that future goal and then see myself as that kind of a person and practice doing those kinds of things that that kind person does now.

It is ok if you decide to give your book to someone else. Odds are that I would get more out of your book if I paid real money to get it rather than to have you just give it to me.

I think it is time to listen to and read KACSOAMR again.

Stay frosty man and thanks for everything. I’ll be chilling here in Iowa staying warm reading some David Ogilvy after I finish the Nap Hill book I’m in now.

I believe the biggest hurdle to success is the baggage in our head. At the Success Magnet event, Heather used the word vulnerability. That may be the biggest hurdle to success. As entrepreneurs, we try new things that sometimes work and sometimes don’t. They are new and untested, which means they may fail. We may be laughed at. We may be told we are stupid. But, we still have to try. I think the fear of failure or actually having a piece fail keeps us from trying new and great things which would lead to great success. If we can break that barrier with knowledge and sometimes just plain old guts accept the risk of failure, we can achieve success. In most cases…easier said than done.

The Biggest Obstacle that exists
whether it’s between an entrepreneur and prospect
or between consultant and client has got to be the
greatest force we live with,the abilty and effectiveness
or lack of the ability to PERSUADE
Without it WE do not exist

The number one problem faced by entrepreneurs is trying to figure what all this “stuff” actually means. They thought becoming rich would solve their problems, but they still have a host of inner demons that need to be worked out. The number one problem is regarding self actualization and trying to not feel like all their endeavors have been for not and realizing it too late – after their wife has filed for divorce and their kids are off at college.

We need help finding meaning in our lives, but instead hide underneath the success of launch after launch or biz after biz.

Entrepreneurs/people don’t have their shit together. They don’t know what to do, in what order to do it, how do it,and went to do it and your book answers those questions which is really the number one thing that entrepreneurs can do to get their shit & business together.

Fear is big, and I gave some longer answers earlier in the thread, cuz it was coming up a lot. You know I have particular love-hate relationship with fear, and it’s huge in getting to levels of success…

The thing that kills many entrepreneurs who face these challenges (and we all do, at some point) is that they don’t have a deep enough gut to power through. And, that sort of gut is powered by their reason why. It has to be more than just making a fortune; that’s the weakest reason why of all…

Nope. You have to have a reason for getting up every day and doing what you do that goes waaaayyyy deeper than making a better buck than the next guy or gal. It has to be something that hooks you so deep in the entrails, every time you tug on it your proctologist calls you for an appointment.

So, it’s finding a deep and abiding reason why, one that wakes up your passion and shakes you to the core of your soul.

Hey John – my answer is similar to Ana Terez’ above, except for the first part.

SHORT ANSWER:
Ignore shiny objects and focus on work that brings in money.

LONG ANSWER:
For me and for our business, the number one problem we have faced is dealing with “Shiny Objects”. The past three years we have bought just about every new product offered by “gurus”, all teaching the latest and greatest way to “make your business better”.

We’ve joined two different high-level mastermind groups where the advice has always been… “You need to be doing X”, where X is always some new fandangled way to siphon money from peoples’ wallets.

The real solution for us (which we discovered over the last few months) is to keep doing what we’ve been doing for the past 15 years that has ALWAYS made us money… except we need to do MORE of it.

This is a huge realization that even veteran successful entrepreneurs have to keep learning, over and over again. Very good answer, Duston… especially since I’ve observed over the years that many folks become entrepreneurs because of ADHD, dyslexia, or other so-called “learning problems” that made them poor students, and even poorer employees in a J-O-B.

Taking action! My first response was going to be copy, but I’ve bought every damn thing I thought would help me change my business model to 90% info marketing. I have all the info I need, taking action is key! Knowledge is not power. Applied knowledge is power.
So then to my second answer, COPY! Knowledge wise, I am in the top 5% of all credit repair company owners in the US. I worked hard to separate myself from the scoundrels out there! Unless I learn to write killer copy that provokes action ( I did recently buy your “Kick Ass Copy Writing Secrets”) it doesn’t matter how good I am. BTW- I invested around $2,500 with another famous copy writer and i learned more about writing copy on your $99 course than in the 12 DVDs, 4 manuals, 700 CDs I got from the other guy. Not knocking him, he did what he’s supposed to do. Get me to spend my money. You provided condensed VALUE!Nuts and bolts! Because of that I have referred you to everyone I know in business except my competition.

I had a discussion a few years ago with a client that has 30 some years of experience starting and running all kinds of businesses. Newsletters, pizza shops, art stores, movie deals, real estate… you name it, he’s probably tinkered with it.

He was explaining the difference between the ventures that went on to make him millions and the ones that flopped.

The line that always stuck with me is “The things you don’t know you don’t know are the things that kill your business.”

And that’s been pretty accurate with entrepreneurs I’ve known since then who failed or gave up.

A restaurant owner will bankrupt himself spending money on marketing when his real problem is food and beverage costs… A newsletter publisher will go out of business trying to make their backends work when the problem is they’re not getting enough new front-end subscribers…

The number one problem I see in entrepreneurs (and CEOs, managers, and even a lot of freelance copywriters) is that they don’t even know what their problem really is.

I’m really enjoying reading all the answers, and also how you’re shooting ’em all down. 😉

I’m going to go with #1 problem: lack of priorities.

I feel like we all have great ideas, new things to learn, shit to implement… but if we’re not prioritizing these in the right order then we’re not really doing the important things that will move the needle in our businesses.

I think the number 1 fear from the entrepreneurs I know (myself included) is CHANGE. To be successful, most people have to make changes in their life…..some are small, others are major. It’s not easy…I know !!!

You made me think about this, Linus. Not the right answer, but a definite issue with some entrepreneurs.

However, as I look back, I’ve known a LOT of emotionally-wounded, psychically damaged folks who did quite well in biz. They were twisted wrecks as human beings, took things personally, and got divorced regularly. But they consistently earned moolah hand over fist…

The biggest problem for the entrepreneur is NOT really knowing or communicating with and about the biggest problem, the Big Kahuna problem of their Customer and speaking directly to that hot, uncomfortable ‘jonesing’ type place in them when they sell their idea, product or service. .

What is the number 1 problem entrepreneurs face in their quest for success?

Truly Identifying the market we are in.. Surely…

Pitching to the wrong market (no matter how wonderful our copy, product or service is) is about as useless as tits on a man…

This is where mentoring can be enlightening, because most of us don’t look outside the microscope of our own industries for any potential markets or prospects (Been there, done that…) Mostly because we don’t have any experience outside our own industry.
The assistance and guidance a mentor, with a bit more scope and experience within a cross section of markets, can bring to the table, can be the difference between success and failure.

The enemy is resistance. The enemy is our chattering brain, which, if we give it so much as a nanosecond, will start producing excuses, alibis, transparent self-justifications, and a million reasons why he can’t/shouldn’t/won’t do what we know we need to do.

A professional distances herself from her instrument. The pro stands at one remove from her instrument — meaning her person, her body, her voice, her talent; the physical, mental, emotional, and psychological being she uses in her work. She does not identify with this instrument. It is simply what God gave her, what she has to work with. She assesses it coolly, impersonally, objectively.

Does Madonna walk around the house in cone bras and come-f*k-me bustiers? She’s too busy planning D-Day. Madonna does not identify with “Madonna.” Madonna employs “Madonna.”

Wait… you mean to suggest that Madonna DOESN’T do housework in cone bras?

You’ve crushed my 80s fantasy, Colli.

Nice thinking on the “distance from instrument” thing, though as a musician I might argue that at a certain point you “become” your instrument (as I instantly meld now with my keyboard when writing)… but not the answer I’m looking for.

You get get all the ideas that you want,
Read all about the best marketing strategies,
Get he latest shiny whiz-bang lead generating capture page generating WordPress plugin (with orange buttons),
read all the best blog posts,
… and reach the end of the day and STILL haven’t implemented anything to make a dime.

Flip your day and DO SOMETHING the first thing in the morning that actually will bring you money and success will approach.

Hi John,
Great way to get everyone thinking, my thoughts on this is that the business owner continues as a technician, and does not move into the role as CEO. This coupled with thinking that his/her business is so unique that things that work in other businesses will not work in their business.

Right then John, gonna throw my hat into the ring here for my shot, so here goes…

Most of the answers are great, and I would have probably chosen something along the lines of “just get the damn thing done”, but being sneaky and trying to find that clue in the answer you gave to Ozan, I’m going to give my answer simply as this – getting paid.

True, you’ve got to be in it for the love too, but if you don’t or can’t charge appropriately for a job well done (be it a service, product or whatever), and your bills are piling up, you’re not going to stay in business for long, which doesn’t do either you or your customers any good in the long haul.

Here is my answer: the number one problem you encounter as consultant for entrepreneurs is finding out they are not prepared for success.

Are entrepreneurs prepared to open the door once success comes a-knockin’?

Are they ready to be a good host, serve the right drink and play the right music?

Basically…

Are entrepreneurs ready to deal with an influx new customers in blink of an eye?

Most entrepreneurs that come to you for help are not ready. They are not prepared for growth. They don’t know how to manage going from 5 to 12 figures a month.

This is a stab in a the dark – totally closing my eyes and shooting in the room here. My answer is based on the fact that you have the power to scale someone’s bidness’ to the nth degree. So even if the answer is wrong, I was still able slip in a compliment here.

All the best, John. You are one of my favorite copywriters. I’d like to sit in a room with you and John E. Powers and take notes. Maybe in another life…

Ha – it’s finding that starving crowd, finding out EXACTLY what they want, how they want it, when they want it – and then giving it to them in such a “crack dealer” way that they come back over and over…

Just picked up a copy of your book – looking forward to digging in on my next flight. (and we’re now bonded in a unique kinda way. MY book, published before yours so not a rip-off LOL, is called The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Sleaze-Free Selling. Anyway …)

I thought the big clue in your original post was “details.” And in my own consulting practice, the big problem I see in the entrepreneurs I work with is not knowing the difference between a strategic plan and implementation. Or, they get an idea and fly into action without stopping to write out the steps. If they did, most of the time they would give the steps to someone else to do (or at least to a different part of their own selves, once the big-picture thinking was done). It solves most of the BIG problems – lack of implementation, better results, less dejection and quitting over failed attempts, etc etc etc.

But then you said that Ozan’s answer was really damn close. So I’m trying to figure out if lack of a strategic plan could also lead to an inability to handle the ups and down of life … but I think I’m pushing a round into a square here.

But hell, I’m sticking with my first answer – it’s the inability to implement the details effectively while simultaneously providing big-picture vision.

John –
Mental attitude is my No. 1 issue – that nagging subconscious lack of belief in the possibility of success. It’s deep-seated, insidious and unbelievably powerful. Without a firm belief that success is possible, the struggle is momentous.

I think the biggest problem with entrepreneurs always have been how they do not want to be (in their minds) shown off by an employee or hired gun. They think things should be done a certain way (whether it’s marketing, advertising, or any other aspect of their business), and that’s the way it should be.

This is what creates the “Business Alpha Males” that protect their ideas and views – even if it is detrimental to their business.

Copywriters see this a lot, because entrepreneurs really do not know their customer. They are so busy with other aspects of their business, that they really do not have enough time to do real research on who buys their products.

Unfortunately, this leads to arguments where (while you might be able to get through the ‘preneur’s skull) the majority of them cast you aside and decide to hire someone who shares their views.

The results – most of the time, business go belly-up because the proper measures were not taken.

Quite a simple answer to be had. The number one problem faced by entrepreneurs in their quest for success is that voice in the space between their ears. Overcoming beliefs is the beginning, but even more so comes to the idea of hope.

If you wake up in the morning with hope ( not my sister’s friend Hope – although that’d be kinda cool, too … and would be a contributing factor for not creating entrepreneurial success ) you can believe that you can do something.

Until that little effing voice wakes up and reminds us of past failures, unsupportive family members and friends – who had our best interest at heart – and the doubt creeps in.

Without a solid belief in one’s ability, can one really move forward?

That being said, the number one problem is that the entrepreneur feels he/she has to go at this all alone and therefore does not look to find a coach/mentor to help them “see” the opportunities or steps to take that may be missed by the untrained eye.

John, I think the biggest challenge is making the sale (getting paid). One way or another, with all the work and effort involved in getting a business off the ground, there comes a time when you need to sell something.

I have your book on Kindle…so I am working through it…tho’ I can’t call it work. Surprisingly enjoyable which is why you are the maestro. So the number one challenge for entrepreneurs is Consistency. Consistent pressure on whatever the task is that will yield the greatest returns. It’s certainly my greatest challenge because in the fable of the grasshopper and the ant…I am the grasshopper. Happy happy.

Remember, folks, my answer will be what I’ve observed over decades of consulting with clients. There’s something going on with entrepreneurs that very commonly holds them back… and it’s a problem with veterans as well as rookies. And, it’s a problem that can pop up even with dudes who’ve already BEEN successful to some point.

Nearly all the answers in this now-very-long thread are good, and many of the suggestions ARE things that pop up in consultations, and hold folks back…

… but it’s not the core, #1 problem I see over and over again.

I’ve loaded this thread with clues. As you might guess, it’s quite likely the correct answer has already been given. However, recall that I’m also giving out a signed book to the “best” answer, too. There are candidates for that prize, but still time to persuade me…

Hey John, thanks for shaking things up! I really admire that about you.

The number one problem faced by most entrepreneurs is not having a stash of “UP YOURS Money.” One big enough to walk away from the bullshit opportunities you’d take just to feed yourself and be able to focus on what’ll get you to the promised land.

To build an “up yours” stash you need to live below your means and religiously bank cash … even when things seem grim. It’s a law of nature that if you do this, more money and prosperity will follow.

Take every entrepreneurial success along your path and bank some profit – don’t blow all of it like a damn fool.

We get in our own way of success. One way to get us out of our own way is to have a laser like focus on what’s important. It was well explained by Curly in the movie “City Slickers.”

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?
[holds up one finger] This.
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean shit.
Mitch: But, what is the “one thing?”
Curly: That’s what you have to find out.

Perhaps it’s the inability or lack of desire to repeat and expand upon what is really working (with testing) and conversely reduce or eliminate what isn’t. In both business and life these things must be identified first and then followed through on.

You’re right, Ray — just going through the comment thread here is a mini-education the way your fellow entrepreneurs think about problems, and what they believe is the main stumbling block of other entrepreneurs.

In an obscure way, this touches on the right answer… but it’s not exactly right.

The answer I’ll share is profoundly simple. That’s a clue, by the way.

Simple, but with implications to everything else you do in life and biz.

long-time (for me) in communicating with you. Had a Gliosarcoma brain tumor removed Aug 12th, and since then, have been living by doing the one thing every business owner MUST do for success … TAKING ACTION. I’ve taken more action and changed my life (and future outcomes) more in the past 4 months, than in the previous 40 months. TAKE ACTION is the answer. A Not So Frosty Kip (hyperthermia treatments raise my core body temp well past the “frosty” state! :))

Wow, Kip. Thanks for letting us know you got through that operation all right. Hope your recovery is fast, so you can continue on this new action path, pal.

“Action” keeps coming up in answers, and for many entrepreneurs it really IS the big obstacle to get past. At first, anyway. As Kip points out, once you adopt the habit of acting you start feeling uncomfortable NOT acting… so you’ve changed the way you interact with the entire world.

However, often that new sense of movement will just bring you face-to-face with the Big Problem that was just beyond the trees before. And that’s the problem I want to illuminate here…

Forgetting about real life. Now you are so busy being an entrepreneur, but who are you really? Are you taking on some kind of persona that you think fits with being an entrepreneur? How are you going to connect with your customers that way?

Have a life! A real honest to God life. Have interests, be interested. Look, listen, learn. It can be an unbalanced life if you have the means to pull that off. Who care about balance? Do you want to love someone in a balanced way? Of course not. Your life should be extravagant too, like your love life.

I Believe the answer is Belief. As in most endeavors 10% is physical and 90% is mental. You need the strong belief in idea’s and self to accomplish no matter what happens. It gives you the stubborn drive to get up,keep going, and try, try again.

The belief develops the faith that creates the vision that you have what it takes to make it no matter what happens!

My opinion is that it is the belief in your self to go look in that mirror and say I Can Do This! I Have What It Takes!

Without this Belief pr Faith in yourself everything can slow you down and cause you to falter.

Hi Ron. Belief systems come and go, and I know that while I partook of self-help books and lots of mantras regarding attaining goals in my early career… the actual act of eliminating my fear, and boosting my confidence enough to get through those first meetings with clients (when I was a raw rookie barely qualified to write the jobs), was just one step of the process.

Like taking action, adopting the mindset of believing you can do something (or at least knowing you can learn from the looming disaster, so you’ll not repeat the mistakes), is a necessary tool in your kit.

But it’s not the Big Problem most entrepreneurs I’ve consulted with face.

I’d say the the things that gets in the way of entrepreneurs is not knowing when they’ve got a diamond or struck gold (the hook) like the one legged golfer story when the guy says, “No one is interested in knowing that.”

I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the guesses, and I’m sure some of the answers are actually the correct #1 problem for some entrepreneurs. I’ll cull from my own experiences working with entrepreneurs and say the #1 problem faced by entrepreneurs in their quest for success is their inability to find a way to solve or surmount problems.

Lots of entrepreneurs are like Sisyphus, they have a goal (getting the rock to the top of the hill), they’re taking action (pushing the rock up the hill), they’re definitely working hard, and gaining ground as they work, but they fail to see the real “problem” before them, nor the true goal that should be achieved.

The number one problem faced by entrepreneurs is understanding psychology. Humans are part producers and part consumers. Therefore, there is “Producer Psychology” and “Consumer Psychology.” In business, you are the producer.

Producer Psychology
You have to understand your own psychology so you don’t set limits to your success. You can set the limit to the amount of money you think you can make (produce) in one year or how fast you can make (produce) money.

Consumer Psychology
You have to understand that their is a basic human shared consumer psychology. This is where salesmanship comes in. If you understand that humans like to win things like a signed book, then you just tapped into their consumer psychology.

Hi John – love all your stuff. Your copywriting course, freelance marketing course, your articles and recordings, and your book. I bought the Kindle version, and I can’t wait to get the print version in the mail, signed by you.

I think the answer to your question has something to do with entrepreneurs not matching their product or service being offered to what their market actually wants. It it ain’t what they want, they ain’t going to buy it. If it is what they want, and they know about it, they’ll come a -knockin’…

The “market match” stuff is important, but it’s not been a huge issue with clients I’ve consulted with. It’s such a primary problem, and can be solved so easily (and often without going through the consulting process), that it doesn’t come up much.

I think that the biggest problem faced by entrepreneurs is to be able to step out of their own worldview or belief system and step into the worldview of their prospect and customer, and speak to the prospect in a way that she feels that the entrepreneur understands him.

Hi John,
Second attempt, showing some persistence for once.
“Chance favors the prepared mind.” Maybe the biggest problem is to be vigilant and flexible and prepared to immediately change course in mid stream when it is indicated.

The #1 problem faced by entrepreneurs is…
ego-centrism, the view that THEY are the center of the universe, and therefore ALL answers must come from themselves!

In one word: it’s themselves!

It’s endemic in our human-animalistic natures; that is, the ying-yang duality built-in to all of us. We are simultaneously the best and the worse for ourselves – positive & negative, etc.

As entrepreneurs, our ‘stripes’ (like zebras) are such that we can reach “a level” of success, perhaps even great success! However we can only go so far, a point is reached inevitably where growth by itself, will require OTHER talent(s), solution(s), answer(s) or deployment(s) — that we may or may not have.

When that point/wall is reached (hit), the entrepreneur continues to slam up against the wall (throwing the same stuff up against the wall always used in the past), or freezes, maybe panics. Hence, the confusion and “deer in the headlights” bewilderment.

The challenge is…
how do we unlearn what we’ve learned throughout our business lives? It’s akin to the circular problem — “not knowing what we don’t know.”

It’s difficult (at the very least)!
As the saying says: “if all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail?”

What is that song that comes to mind? “If I had a hammer, I’d hammer in the morning, I’d hammer in the evening, all over this land…”

As for the underlying psychological reasons — everyone should at least take a Psych 101 class, and maybe 1 or 2 more…it’ll slap the humility back into us where it belongs, PRONTO!

The meaning of success. Knowing what success means to us, not the meaning that has been instilled in us from our parents, teachers, siblings, peers, media, etc. We see and hear what other people define as success, but when we obtain “success”, it is then that we realize that we’re still not happy, even we are filthy rich.

I’m gonna say it’s lack of specific, well-defined goals. Not having a clear goal in mind, just a vague feeling of “I want to improve my business”. Without clear goals its easy to be unsure of what to do next. Clearly defined goals help.

I would have to say your mindset. Your way of thinking hasn’t made you successful yet so it would have to mean that your way of thinking about success needs to be further learned and developed. I know it changed my business:)

The NUMBER ONE PROBLEM faced by entrepreneurs is not clearly answering the question “What business am I in?” in a way that creates a stand-above-the-crowd, elegantly simple, highly actionable Unique Selling Proposition and then building the business around that USP with an unrelenting laser-like focus.

While I’ve heard of your mystical and magical ways for years, this is the first time I’ve ventured over to your digital front door, as it were.

As an entrepreneur, I know I have many fears, even when I don’t want to admit it –but this post isn’t about me — it’s about the biggest fear you’ve seen with your clients. So that sent me on a little tour through your blog, and I believe the answer is the ‘Great Unknown Future’.

The unknowing of all the things we have no control over, and overcoming that to reach deep within ourselves and leap, even though we can’t see the net.

Not knowing that a drop in the housing market can mean disposable spending drying up, which leads to sales dropping, which leads to … oh wait this wasn’t about me, was it?

Thanks for the quiz and the chance to get to know you a little more, digitally.

Not the answer I’m looking for, though a nice turn of phrase there with “Great Unknown Future”. Part of the cognitive dissonance of being human, when our neo-cortex freaks out over the ability to envision, but not always direct the future. Ah, the consequences of expanding consciousness…

Hey John – Really hard to say what the number one problem is. Kinda depends on where the entrepreneur is in his journey. Somebody starting out may have fear of success – what if what I’m doing actually works?

Two fairly big problems for entrepreneurs are:

1. Inability to control money effectively. No matter how much they make, they seem to handle their money poorly.

2. Inability to set up systems that run the business in place of the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs have the “nobody does it better” syndrome and often hesitate to delegate. I know of a multimillion dollar business that is suffering right now because the owner never effectively replaced himself.

By the way, I’m reading your book right now on my Kindle. I’m really enjoying it. Thanks for taking the time to write it. 🙂

Sorry for hogging up the content space. It’s a nice conversation. Not much people around were I live that I can talk about these kind of things. So, thanks John! Nice little brain exercise. Ha. That’s another answer… Letting your brain go into mode.

They spend too much time working and not enough time living. They don’t get away from “it”(work) enough because they’re trying so hard, too hard, to be successful and they’re not enjoying life anymore.

In essence, they become the business. Without them, nothing works right. And even sometimes with them, nothing works right. Kinda like staring at a computer screen too long. After awhile everything gets hazy and you can’t even see what you’re supposed to do.

I remember you talking about this on various occasions. I think a major problem with entrepreneurs – especially ones who are just starting out – is trying to go at it all alone.

Trying to be the Jack of all trades because of a misguided belief that no one else can do it as perfect as them – after all it’s their business.

“Why should I trust anyone else? What if they don’t do a good job?”

This often leads to overwhelm and an inability to focus on things that are important. If you are responsible for bringing in the moolah in your business – that’s all you should be focusing on. Everything else is secondary. Period.

What is the NUMBER ONE PROBLEM faced by entrepreneurs in their quest for success?

Let’s end this madness…
Stop going so deep,
We all know the Core #1 Problem that’s causing businesses
of all sizes to struggle,never hit their mark,or even perish is… drum roll please- their FAILURE to reach out and get the right help they need in the first place-I mean does the average business owner even know who to call?
Sometimes the answer is so simple, we can’t see it.
Fun stuff.

Have a year’s worth of money in the bank. Without that money, you feel you have to say yes to the craziest things. When you have saved your money, you have power to make the right decisions for your business.

The biggest obstacle of a new entrepreneur, in my opinion, is not understanding the importance of testing. They will try something and when it doesn’t work, they’ll get discouraged and give up. If they keep trying different variations, different approaches, even different products, they will eventually “hit”. They have to find a product that they truly believe in and then they have to find a way to present that product so that other people will tap into the value of the product and then they have to figure the right price point so that when people find value in the product they will spend the money. Small variations will make huge differences so someone may fail numerous times before they get all the ingredients right. But once they get it, they’re on their way.

Nope. I love testing, and urge clients to do lots of it. However, I’ve known a small army of successful biz owners who refuse to test (mostly because they’re too lazy), and rely on their ability to find a hot funnel anyway. Dangerous, but it’s the way many humans work.

So I am expanding on my first try. My favorite piece of motivational literature goes, “Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back…always ineffectiveness. ” Of course, it goes on but the crux of the matter is COMMITMENT….beyond any hurdles one (I) may encounter. And I am so close to where I need to be…(but then of course, the target moves on)….LOL. So I would say, undying commitment. By the way, John, I will cherish your book. 🙂

Upon reading I realized that I need to change my thinking on this. There are so many subjects that I want to touch on. But upon re-ready the set-up and question I see that you may be out lining the problem itself.

Furthermore I have not seen any one mention this.

I think it’s the failure to plan. Properly put together a business plan. Review the past and re-plan based upon what we have learned.

Once launched business will take on a life of it’s own. The plan and updates to the plan provide a guide for the growth of your business.

When planing and reviewing you will more clearly see the whole picture, guide and adapt in the best way’s to further develop the business.(knowing when to bring in smarter people or hire consultants like yourself.)

Q: What is the NUMBER ONE PROBLEM faced by entrepreneurs in their quest for success?
A: Lack of confidence in their ability to really be successful without all the “trappings” the “experts” keep telling them they need.

What Michael Gerber talked about in “The E-Myth Revisited” and Tim Ferris emphasized in the 4-Hour Work-Week. Designing the business so it will work without you, so you could turn it into a franchise if you wanted.

Having a process, even if it’s Halbert’s “research, list facts, list benefits, write in one stretch,” and then tweaking that process from iteration to iteration. Documenting what you do, so when the workload gets too high, you can hire someone and say — “read this PDF, and do what it says.”

Architecting your process so that, eventually, when you have enough business, you can progressively hire more and more people taking over a larger and larger swath of your business process. Until — poof! — one day they’re more or less doing it all for you while you blog away from the obligatory beachfront bar with cocktail in hand.

Or, more likely, you’ve fallen into the entrepreneurial addiction trap and gone and started a new business, beginning the cycle all over again.

There are, as people are realizing here, a LOT of “good answers” that could fit this quiz’s answer. This part of the model you’re suggesting is in the Top 20 necessary things to put into action over the long-haul of running a top entrepreneurial biz.

I think you’ll see where it fits more precisely, when I reveal the answer I’m looking for here.

The number one problem faced by entrepreneurs is the ability to focus on the core of the business…ignoring all distractions. As your story of your first day in Gary Halbert’s office relates, distractions take care of themselves when you focus on what generates the cash.

I think I read up to 167. Time for my next crack at this nut…although it seems that Eric beat me to it.

I’d say that the number one problem for entrepreneurs is knowing how and when to step away from a successful business.

That requires outside help and a significant mindset shift. It also requires discipline to step away from doing what you know how to do so well (i.e. run your business)- even if the people you employ to take over the operations don’t do it as well as you would – so you can focus on building real wealth.

If I think back to what I needed when I had my first mentor, it was clarity that was *my* biggest problem. Once that clarity was achieved, I was able to adapt and move forward faster and further than I ever expected.

By the way, thanks for this really thought-provoking topic, John. Some of the comments it has thrown up have been fantastic.

I stand in awe of your course: “Kick Ass Copywriting Secrets of a Marketing rebel”; which I got a week ago – and devoured in 2 days.

It is Par None the BEST Biz advice I have EVER received. From creating sensational ads, learning the lost art of killer salesmanship and the discovery of the function of seduction … right down to operation Moneysuck – what amazing revalations!

I gave an answer above which spoke about “Operatiom Moneysuck” – here is the definition (note I am not changing my answer – merely giving more detail)

“Operation MoneySuck” in full gear:

Two Part Lesson

1) Money will solve problems that not having money creates
2) You’re the Guy who knows how to bring in the money

Don’t waste time doing something that doesn’t produce bucks. Every hour you put into your business will bring you major moolah back in.

Thanks for the note, Sean. That is one of the essential lessons of good biz-running, for sure. You can divide the really successful folks from the less-than-really-successful folks just by asking who’s hip to Op$uck.

I realised how in the box I was with my first comment. Now I may be helping everyone here or I may just be the slow one.

But you are not actually looking for the number 1 problem that entrepreneurs are facing. You are looking for the number 1 problem that entrepreneurs who can afford to consult with you are facing. Which mean’s they are already successful in some way or another.

So we can rule out a bunch of starting problems there.

So my new guess would be-

Not thinking outside the box, being too stubborn or being afraid to change what may already be making them money in order to free up time or make themselves more money.

Smart insight, Luke. I’ve been hammering this point all along… though, not all of the consults I do are with “already successful” entrepreneurs, though some are. It’s a problem that transcends early success in a biz venture.

Alright, alright, after reading some of your responses, here’s what I’m thinking…

Most of us can’t see the forest for the trees. Because we’re so engrossed in the minute details, we often don’t step back and see the whole picture from start to end. We can get lost in a specific step and forget about the objective of that step in the grand scheme of things.

And by having this marketing myopia, we limit our ability to create massive gains. Again, this is classic 80/20 Pareto principle. Most focus on the 80% that only provide the 20% of results…when it really should be reversed.

Ok, thanks for another sleepless night John. As a side note, I see the powerful tactic of engaging your customers through participation (like this quiz). Awesome stuff.

Noooo… I think I’ve said, before, that the problem I’m talking about affects even veteran marketers who have tasted success. The answer I’m looking for (and yes, this is a clue) has little to do with the details of the marketing plan put into action.

One of the biggest problems would have to be leverage, having the ability to leverage ones time, energy and/or money to get to the next level. It’s something I come up against regularly both personally and with my clients.

Hi John, I think the problem is not have a system or process to deal with problems. To look ahead at how messed up things can get, and plan for em’. I think getting focused on increasing the business and improving often takes the place of preparing for land mines.

A look into the possible future dark side and having your light saber all charged up and raring to go is something I don’t often consider.

Thanks for the quiz. I’ve learned a lot from everyone’s posts. Thank you John and everyone else. I hope you all have a great day.

Yeah, I’m watching Shark Tank, too… but I’m starting to think it’s jumping the shark already. Trump’s original “Apprentice” shows (the first two seasons) were a delight to biz owners… and then, because of ratings, they dumbed it down and went soft on the actual biz lessons being shared. It became a celebrity game, with Survivor overtones. Yawn. For the masses, great. For biz owners, a waste of time.

Shark Tank depends on the producers bringing in entrepreneurs with good stories. I’ve been shouting at the TV screen since the first episode, and I find myself nodding in agreement with Mr Wonderful and Mark Cuban most often. But the denser details of running a biz get lost in the search for “magic” on the show, and the cluelessness of the entrepreneurs (in most cases). It’s becoming a kind of biz lottery, where it’s unclear why some win and others are turned away… especially since the show refuses to follow up on any failures. They just show the happy results… which are often ONLY there because of the “Shark Tank Bump” a biz can get just by being on the show. Not sustainable. The show is sending a strange message out to the world, part of which I agree with, part of which leaves me cold.

I have noticed that usually on Shark Tank the Sharks smell blood in the water under one circumstance that I think has the most consistency. If an entrepreneur comes into their presence with a proven track record of sales (especially accompanied by a fairly good profit margin), a favorable interest or share in the company, then they seem to jump all over it. I have seen really interesting items get passed up because the entrepreneur sold $10 million and made only $2,000. They especially hate seeing someone come in there with an item that has a business model that is easy to duplicate and has no track record of marketing or sales.

I haven’t done much with advertising because of that problem. I don’t know if I can trust it will work and I don’t have a lot of money to fool around with. There’s so many tools out there available to marketers (free & paid) and it’s incredibly hard to know what to use, let alone what to buy. Get rich quick scams done by people who are just trying to get rich themselves and don’t care about everyone else.

The internet has made it even more difficult because anyone with an internet connection can put their opinion online and fool the world into thinking they know what they are talking about.

How many emails do you get from relatives or friends about some little thing that most people do that might be killing you or that will change your life? We are bombarded with messages like these every day.

That’s most of the reason why I don’t watch any news. It’s starts with the body count of the day and is just full of negativity.

I like to stay positive (and frosty!) and keep that attitude about everything I do. It’s difficult though with the majority of people trying to crush your dreams!

It is a fact that every successful person was told they could not do what made them successful by someone and probably a lot of people including their closest relatives and friends.

Thanks John for all you do. I really enjoy your blog and your attitude about life and business.

I think most Entrepreneurs are not dependent to the money coming from their own business, in other words, they have a safe net to live on. If their business would fail, they don’t assume it would leave them in total poverty left to die.
Personally, I do a job better when my life is dependent on it, otherwise I don’t put enough work to it.
Not having enough pain means lack of motivation!

John,
The problem they experience is the inability to step away from their Creation. Being a high selling, high converting, Marketing System. They are a God-like creator. No need to get attached. They fail to delegate and create human, yet monitored, SYSTEMS which can operate as self-fueled, self motivated thingy entities.

Get out of your HEAD! You deserve the elusive success only if you get in the HABIT of test it, try it, prove it and repeat what works! So the entrepreneur is not constantly adapting his established systems to what’s working now — as tested, tried and proven now.

The number one problem that all entrepreneurs face is procrastination brought on by the sudden onset lack of focus from not staying with their first great idea until reaching success. That’s it. If you can devise a way to control this then many more people would find success in the quiet hours of the night.

Biggest problem: not knowing where to even begin. This is like eating an elephant and not realizing it’s one bite at a time. But do you start with the ass and work your way to the trunk, vice-versa, or start somewhere else?

If you would discover the NUMBER ONE PROBLEM faced by entrepreneurs in their quest for success the consequence would be that from the moment you disclose it many entrepreneurs are destined to become successful … BUT that will not happen as it never happened before … because such a big Kahuma of entrepreneurial obstacles simply does not exist as one single problem.

So although you will call SOMETHING as such a biggest problem actually it will not be one single problem but one of a crucial complex issues hidden behind the simplified naming of it, otherwise you would create a world entrepreneurial revolution.

Therefore, allow me to grasp it from a different angle. Nothing in human life is changeable by a magic wand. Having in mind the worse and worse reality of our world of business (when side by other bigger problems all standard manipulative techniques for selling are losing their potential with every day and people do have less and less money), the number one problem faced by entrepreneurs in their quest for success is the reality that they do not REALLY consider IN and THROUGH their entrepreneurship the improvement of the BIG PICTURE of the future having in mind mostly small pictures of today. Entrepreneurs do not understand yet that the CREATIVE, POSITIVE and GOOD-HEARTED contribution to the big picture will be soon very profitable issue. And the big picture is enclosed in all small things!

Hullo back. Actually, I’ve had some very successful clients were long-suffering victims of the worse cases of ADHD I’ve ever witnessed. Focus is necessary to succeed, yes, but follow-through can be delegated out.

Inability to scale fast enough or deal with success when it comes a’knocking. Speaking from experience, too… this problem nearly killed one friend’s business and entirely capsized another’s.

We all obssess about success, but what happens when it happens… your marketing works just a little better than expected… and that starving crowd has packed the streets for two city blocks around your little shop?

You better be ready to deliver. (Or you risk ending up like Gary Halbert… in Boron.)

And… you better be ready to recognize the methods you’ve been using may not get the job done. “Not invented here” syndrome can be deadly when you have to scale in a hurry.

Even worse is holding on to the mindset of a onesy-twosy custom watchmaker when you should be thinking like a factory.

Come to think of it… The inability to ask for help, a blindness to external solutions that would solve the problem, and the unwillingness to implement advice you’ve gotten — can all be deadly too.

I don’t know if it’s “the” problem, but as a consultant you must get pretty frustrated when you give someone advice and they just keep doing what they did. “Doing the same thing and expecting different results… or being forced to watch someone else do just that” might be a better definition of insanity!

(While we’re on the subject of success, what about dealing with Seth Godin’s “dip”…? Can you scale down when times are bad, and push through? Or will your overhead kill you?)

Oh, and one more thought. As one successful consultant put it… “Pioneers usually get eaten by wild animals. I am guy that comes in afterwards and buys what they found from their widows.”

Much better to find a known good path instead of inventing everything from scratch.

To answer this question, I’m gong to use my personal life experiences, and the calling in life I never answered-being a forensic scientist.
So, If the entrepreneurs come seeking your advice, they have a degree of angst about some portion of their business. You listed a few in your blog: solving problems, finding happiness, managing wealth, or the lack there of. I’m now putting this information into my nation data bank.(my brain) My screen just went totally blank, dam why is this thing freezing up on me-ahhhh- The number one problem faced by entrepreneurs in their quest for success is THEMSELVES.

Okay John, based on the correct answer in 2009, I’ll venture to say the #1 Problem facing Entrepreneurs is recognizing the ship is bearing down on an iceberg and getting one or more expert officers or sailors on board to get ‘er turned away into clear waters before it’s too late.

The #1 problem is getting customers. Many entrepreneurs put their startup efforts into creating the product or determining how they will provide their service when instead they should be determining how they will attract customers.

While it’s a valid target in any business’s plan, this is not the main problem I see in my consulting clients.

I’m glad to see so many folks giving this quiz a try, but devote part of your thinking to framing the question correctly to your brain (so you don’t wander off on tangents).

Consider what kind of person might consult with me. Pay some semi-hefty bucks, have specific goals in mind… and yet may not see the main problem holding them back. I mentioned that both rookie and veteran biz owners suffer from this problem… which means at least some of them have already tasted some success.

In other words, the answer is a bit further down the line, after the fundamentals like this have been covered.

Don’t think I’ve ever engaged with a blog post as much. I suppose that’s what happens when you ask a damn good question, see loads of damn good answers to that question and offer a damn good prize to up the stakes, but anyway, I digress…

My (second) answer would be that a lot of entrepreneurs have trouble detaching themselves from their work and finding that crucial balance we all need to enjoy life and live it to its fullest. Most entrepreneurs become entrepreneurs because they want to work and live on their own terms, freed from the corporate shackles, and whilst most start of this way, a lot (almost inevitably) find that they have accidentally built themselves nothing more than just another job, and not the lifestyle and business they so badly want (or need even).

What you’ve outlined is a VERY important element of a well-managed life for an entrepreneur. It’s not, however, precisely what I’m looking for here.

And yes, you’re getting close, along with a few dozen of other posters.

Me, I’m just happy to see so many folks diving in and doing some deep critical thinking here. Even for veteran biz owners, the brain get flabby and lazy… and you can see how doing detective work and some hard thinking just fires up the old gray matter like crazy.

I’m back again to take another stab at this. Is it short-sighted thinking? That is, the desire to make money right now, instead of planning for what is coming?

I read an article that said the most profitable companies go through staggered growth. They explained it like driving; there are stops, slow downs and green lights – but you’re always heading in a direction. If you blow through the lights, you’ll crash.

The thing is… we know what’s coming. We live our lives on a calendar. Things exist like holidays, birthdays, celebrations and so on. Did you know that the Greeks would have two major festivals each year? They took place before and after Winter. The pre-Winter party was to get one last celebration in for the people that would inevitably starve and die. The post-Winter party was a celebration for the people that survived. In this case, entrepreneurs of the Greek era would then have two major events to plan for…

So the issue entrepreneurs face is connecting what they do to real life events. This answer is a stretch, but I think it’s important to share even if it’s not “it”. People yearn for ‘right-now’ information. Think about how people like using Facebook and Twitter for instant connection gratification. If you can connect what you do to what people do, you’ll overcome a huge problem: thinking about right now instead of tomorrow.

A general disconnect between what’s in their head, and what’s actually true. The state of needing a reality check.

Close cousin to this is entrepreneurial tunnel vision. Tunnel vision being the opposite of what Jay Abraham got by exposing himself to the legendary 400+ different busineseses and industries.

Or call it “can only see what’s in this valley” syndrome. What you get from farming the same land in the same valley for decades. You need someone from the outside world to point out there’s all this great stuff just one hill over.

Many of the things that may stymie your clients have been noted here and you have acknowledged their validity.
My guess is that many of those problems (fear, procrastination, shiny object syndrome, time management problems, and many others) suggested here disguise an elemental flaw: a lack of self-knowledge.

If you don’t know who you are and what you want, all the things listed above, (and more, depending on our own character and personality)) will prevent serious problem-identification and problem-solving in many aspects of business including marketing, product creation, writing, etc.

It will influence even which business you want to enter (perhaps for the wrong reasons). This could easily affect successful business people and newcomers.

Until you know yourself,, the more superficial (not to say unimportant) things will throw you.

Well John, you have certainly stumped all of us and I am sure everyone is anxiously awaiting for what is the “Big Kahuna” problem.

I did some research and came up with some things you have shared which I thought they were worth sharing here.

A quotation:

“The Number One asset they have… is a set of cojones. Not the physical ones, you moron, but the ones that define your ATTITUDE. (Some of the toughest, most ‘onery and successful biz owners I know are women, who proudly agree they’ve got the required cojones.)”

Very, very close. And great job on the detective work, Darrell. This is why these quizzes are so cool when taken seriously — once your brain gets after a solution, if you have experience at detective work, it’s both fun and enlightening.

Also, everyone should have noticed, by now, that I’m not necessarily commenting on the ones who got the right answer. It’s safe to say the first prize has already been snagged…

… but that’s why I dangled a second prize, for the best-written response. There are multiple candidates for that prize, but the quiz has a few days left to run…

The number one problem faced by business people and wannabes is this. At least in my stupid little brain.
People can’t talk to others. That’s it. Nothing to do with writing copy,adwords or getting media.
If you don’t talk to people you won’t bloody well succeed.

Something either Rookie or Business Veteran would
love to feel is a “Sense of Purpose”
that gives meaning to what you do day in and day out-
after all, entrepreneurs are seekers on a quest for…
Money alone,we know better.

A sense of purpose could be the intangible that drives
you and your entire business- I know it does for mine.

Just look at any Great business person or any great person
ALL driven by a personal mission to make meaning out of
the time we spend in our lives.

Exactly how to create it and stay on course I would think
would be a nice creative job for the consultant.

The biggest issue entrepreneurs face is not going deep enough in to the underbelly of the relentless torment their clients are facing. All of our work/marketing will miss the mark and be wasted time and effort if we do not explicitly know and define the clients pain points (and use them)to show them a way out of the muck and mire of the ever growing noisy market place.

Based on the clue hidden right in your text
Regarding the block in a success-seeker’s quest,
The number-one issue is not one of fear,
Nor of static inaction or no goals for the year.
The main “Big Kahuna” is not a lack of great passion
Or watching the trends for the latest big fashions;
The number one problem that lies at the center
Is a failure to find and connect with a mentor.
If you contact an expert who’s been there before
They can walk you through problems and show you much more.
The biggest and baddest of walls to your dream
Is not so forbidding as now it must seem.
If you haven’t enjoyed a good round of consulting
Be shocked and amazed and the riches resulting!
~Lily Ann Fouts

Nice, even with the typo. However, strictly speaking, not everyone can benefit from a mentor relationship. Some entrepreneurs are just too weird, and need space to process what they learn about marketing. Still, can’t say you’re not close…

I bought the ebook as soon as it was available and love it. Of course, I’d still like a signed physical copy, so here goes my best guess, without the benefit of consuming caffeine first, so this could be really ugly 🙂

The biggest problem I’ve personally seen rookie entrepreneurs and veterans have is this: They have no plan for keeping the business running when they aren’t there.

Sure, they might delegate things here and there and outsource some stuff but if they get hit by car tomorrow and are in a coma, there’s nothing in place for someone to take over the reigns and run things so that the business doesn’t come to a screeching halt or collapse because no one has the authority to sign the checks to keep things going.

There’s plenty of side effects of this problem:
Not being able to enjoy your success because you don’t trust anyone to run it for you. Your family despises your business because it keeps you away from them. Yeah, they love the money but they want more time with you, not the stuff the money buys.

You’re too involved and stifle any good ideas your staff might bring to the table. You don’t explore new markets and grab new customers because you’re too wrapped up in thinking you’re the only one who really knows and understands. You’re the idea person setting the course but should anything happen to you, guess what?

Probably not the biggest problem you’ve seen, John, but that’s my best guess.

My shortest guess was; not following through on the advice you gave them. But I thought you discounted that earlier when you said “not taking action” wasn’t the # 1 thing.

In fact, it’s often how copywriters create their own products (or products for clients who, say, need a back-end) — you write out the best possible ad, including specific bullets… and then go create the product that fulfills the promise of the ad.

Since I’m re-reading “Psycho Cybernetics,” I know that an area I continually work on is developing my “mental movie.” I need to be more consistent with this type of activity…

I have several real life experiences where I developed that “start with the clear vision of the end result in mind” of what I wanted to achieve – and when I visualized that mental movie daily, saw myself achieving exactly what I wanted, and believed it was possible…it came true.

I’d say it almost scared me when it “played out” exactly how I envisioned…

I think the first couple times I really dedicated the time to doing this type of exercise daily – that little demon voice in my head was saying “I’m going to prove this doesn’t work!”

But then each goal played out in real life almost exactly as I had imagined.

Needless to say, I got a little shaken when it did – amazing how powerful we really are…

Someone who is struggling with their business should find an expert to help them find the solution to their problems.

If you had a medical condition that was causing your health to suffer, you would find a qualified professional, with years of experience to consult with. So too should someone in business.

Instead of wasting effort trying to heal their business’ with “alternative therapies” or untested methods, or “tough it out” by working harder, entrepreneurs fail to find the expert, the “Big Kahuna”, to help them through consultation or, if they are compatible, mentoring.

what is the number one problem faced by entrepreneurs in their quest for success?

It’s not the lack of information that entrepreneurs are challenged with in the age of the internet, but rather it’s the difficulty to collect, interpret, organize and specifically apply this data to whatever it is that they’re working on.

John, I think the first nail in the coffin is mediocrity. Trying to be the same as others rather than finding one’s own unique voice and personality or one’s own unique selling proposition.
The second nail in the coffin is isolation. Not reaching out and collaborating or building a mastermind.

Ok, John, I’ll play: They allow stress to dictate how they live their lives and run their business. And they don’t really enjoy life because of it. Not sure if that’s what you’re looking for but that’s probably my favorite thing you’ve ever said.

OK, I’d just finished some work yesterday and was trying to fall asleep, when some ideas started bubbling up. I grabbed a pencil and started writing. Here’s my decipherment of the resulting half-asleep scrawl…

If anyone so much as THINKS of using this, drop me an email so I can tell you where to send my 5%.

The Mind-Shattering Secret of an Underground Marketing Consultant from Cucamonga!

Dear friend,

When people say to “think outside the box,” ever feel like rolling your eyes at them… or worse?

Let’s face it, it’s easier said than done.

You’ve been running your business SUCCESSFULLY for a long time. Who is some dweeb to think he understands your problems — and that he can hand-wave them away with some pithy sayings?

On the other hand… what if there really was a way to pull out a magic wand… suddenly see the missing piece of the puzzle… and transform your business?

The man I#d like to introduce you to, has been banging his head against this problem for years… both as a business owner like you and later as a consultant.

Two years ago he slipped and fell in a porta-potty at a rock concert… and as his forehead struck the drain-pipe, he had a flash of inspiration.

This man took that vision and developed it into a system you can use, today, to:

– [You’re John Frikkin’ Carlton, write your own damn bullets]

The secret is simple. All business owners develop a kind of “tunnel vision.” And it’s a good thing! You need it — otherwise, the day-to-day stress and chaos would drive anybody certifiably insane.

But this “shell” that protects you also blocks your vision… keeping you from seeing the revolutionary solutions that would make your life a thousand times richer. And you, a thousand times richer.

It’s easy to spot this “shell,” even if it exists only in your mind. It’s the habits, the assumptions, the “mental rules of thumb” you use every day. Have you ever said to yourself —

– “This worked before, it’ll keep working”
– “Of course this is the best way to do this”
– “Everybody does it this way”
– “It’s the only way”
– “If I try that, people are gonna think…”
– “There’s no way the solution could be THAT easy”
– “I know this market, there just isn’t that much room to grow”
– “There’s no way we can compete, we’re screwed!”
– “This is the only way that works for us.”

If any of those sound familiar, then you’ve encountered the shell. The vital tool every entrepreneur uses to get through the day… but also the barrier that blocks their vision.

And it doesn’t have to be this way.

You CAN re-engineer your own thinking… easily… and it won’t hurt a bit. I promise! This is NOT like those tiring, draining self-improvement courses you’ve tried. This is SIMPLE and EASY.

All You Have To Do Is Read!

The words have been carefully chosen to burrow their way into your brain… take advantage of innate human psychology… and reveal new possibilities to you. Often while you sleep!

No more missing ad opportunities because you “knew” it couldn’t work.” (Only to have your competition get there first and make a killing.)

No more feeling like you’re “trapped” or “doomed”… with this, you’ll be finding ways out of the most impossible situations. And… turning them to your advantage!

But, don’t take my word for it. Listen to what our customers have to say —

“I’d been selling to one market for years, and thought I’d hit the limits to growth. Then I read this report… and realized a simple positioning change would give me TEN TIMES the sales!” — Joe Schmoe, A&M Publications

“My secretary laughed when I told her my new ideas… and my wife almost had kittens… but when the bank statements started coming in…!” –James Caples, Northern Music School

If you saw a farmer who’d discover vast, lush land to plow… if only he’d look over a little hill… would you point it out? Because that’s what this man sees in most businesses, just because they’re trapped in that entrepreneurs’ “shell.”

And he wants to help you BUST OUT.

He’s taught this system to people just like you and seen them make millions within days! And he could easily charge five figures for it, if he was a regular consultant dealing with gigantic corporations.

However… this man’s been there. He knows what it’s like to worry about making the rent. Therefore, to get this report, you pay just $xxx.

And, because I want you to be CERTAIN you’re getting far more than your money’s worth, I#ll throw in an hour’s consultation, one-on-one. You get a technique that’s helped hundreds of entrepreneurs… and made many of them into millionaires… plus personal coaching from one of the “marketing legends” of our time.

But wait, let me make it even better. This is a zero risk offer. You’ll have 120 days to review the report, and if for any reason you don’t like it… just click one button and you’ll get an automatic, instant, no-questions-asked refund!

So don’t delay. Click the button below. You’ll be asked for your credit card number, and within seconds you’ll be reading the report that may change everything you thought you knew about your business. (My assistant will follow up with you to schedule the consultation.)

Reading all the answers that are so focused in the personal life of the entrepreneur(fear, life balance, passion…), I would say:

THE MARKET DOES NOT F*CH*NG CARE!

Like an actress that is drug dependent, alcoholic, sleeps all day and is totally dumb, but at the end of the day makes millions of people to fall in love with her just with a smile, including the president of the State, it fills all theaters and make all the money for the producers.

I know it is not fair, we have this deep sense of justice, that Walt Disney teaches us every single day of Beauty and the Beast that you know, we should chose for mating a genetically defect person because “is better in the inside”, while at the same time the Disney top folks chose top models for mating themselves.

In my opinion, the most important thing of all is Marketing 101: Understanding your customers needs, and be in the better position to solve them.

This means putting on your customers real skin, and is so creepy there. Understanding who they really are, not how they want people to think about them, or how is culturally accepted.

Most people universe rules around them. They believe that if the put enough hours, effort, lack of fear…they will get something from the universe, but the universe cares mostly about itself.

They try to manage every detail and every aspect of their business all by themselves. When they start to see problems, they try to tackle them all alone. They don’t connect with other people who can help them along the way on, on a regular basis.

No.1 problem
Entrepreneurs cannot answer and do not know “why do you buy from me?”
They do not know the problem they solve for their client, hence they are not seeking a ‘starving crowd’ !!!!
Thanks Gary. :))

The biggest problem the entrepreneur has, even when he does not know it, is that he is too close to the business to see the opportunities in it, he is too enthralled with the day to day routine to perceive the pots of gold he has at hand.